1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to modeling of functions relating to psychological activities of the brain. More particularly, the present invention relates to a memory system using an artificial neural network structure (neural network model) for modeling such psychological functions of the brain as ‘intuition’, ‘consciousness or awareness’, ‘memory-chaining’ and ‘emotion expression’. The present invention is applicable to many fields including those of (1) systems of intelligent robotics; (2) pattern recognition systems such as security systems for fingerprint identification, speech recognition and digit/character voice recognition, and image diagnosis; and (3) general domestic electrical appliances.
2. Description of the Related Art
Interpretation of notions of the emotional and psychological activities of the actual brain is a really challenging problem. Many schools in various disciplines including biology and philosophy have historically developed arguments about the interpretation of functions of the brain relating to emotional and psychological activities among those of the brain. Recently, research and development activities have been made on the basis of information obtained by the progress of biological studies in addition to the advancement of computer technology to develop what is called “brain-style computers”.
It is said that the elucidation of the notion of ‘intuition’ in terms of artificial neural networks is one of key approaches to the development of brain-style computers (Ref. [1]).
On the other hand, various arguments have been made in recent years in the field of robotics about the concrete modeling of the notion of ‘consciousness’ (Refs. [2] to [5]). An intelligent robot is proposed in Ref. [5] as an example of such modeling. This artificial robot is capable of imitating the behavior of an actual animal by using a model of ‘consciousness’. A virtual machine modeling the behavior of ‘consciousness’ is proposed in Ref. [2].
However, concrete methods of modeling the notion of ‘intuition’ have not been established in the conventional neural networks, and any method capable of clearly explaining the modeling of the state of ‘consciousness or awareness’ has not been available.